Cooks & Cocinas: Chef Marc Cruz, AT&T Center

Executive Chef Marc Cruz runs the kitchen at the AT&T Center where he feeds those sitting in Express Jets courtside seats, suites and the Terrace Club level, as well as the Spurs and their opponents after home games.

Cruz and his two sous chefs create menus for ticket holders in Express Jets courtside seats, suites and the Terrace Club level in addition to preparing box lunches for referees and cheerleaders and serving postgame meals to the Spurs and the opposing teams.

What's cooking: The ever-changing offerings defy stadium-food stereotypes. “It's not chicken tenders and hot dogs,” Cruz says. How about a blue cheese fondue platter or a seafood tower to munch on while watching the game?

Cruz also puts an upscale spin on dogs, serving steak dogs with toppings such as creamy spinach or tomato-jalapeño relish.

For the playoffs, he expanded the options, putting a Texas twist on fish and chips with Texas Pedernales Beer Battered Red Fish and Lemon Chips and beefing up the nacho varieties. Cruz, who tends to all the presentation details, creates nacho stacks that typically start with brisket smoked in the kitchen.

Homemade: The arena's made-from-scratch list is long: flavored pastas and breads; sausages of blends such as fajita steak, caramelized onions and pepperjack cheese or turkey, dressing, sage and cranberries; and grown-up ice cream flavors such as mesquite bourbon-infused vanilla with candied pecans.

Pastry chefs whip up sweets such as Mississippi mud bars, bite-size pies, éclairs and fruit served in chocolate bowls that, yes, they make. They dip small inflated balloons in tempered chocolate, then pop the balloons after the chocolate has set.

“We're all about fresh ingredients,” says Cruz, adding that cooking fresh makes work more interesting for all the cooks. “No one wants to just open a package and drop it in water. What's fun about that?”

The space: The main kitchen measures about 28 feet by 40 feet with dishwashing stations along one end and cooking appliances — ovens, smokers and steamers — stretched along the long wall. The space accommodates as many as 40 cooks working at 16 tables on prep day.

On game days, the staff expands to the 20-by-20-foot prep kitchen where salads are tossed fresh and other dishes are assembled.

Buying in bulk: The pantry stores staples, such as the 150 pounds of yellow onions, 75 pounds of red onions and 100 pounds of sugar and flour needed for each game.

Freezers and fridges are stocked with meat: about 200 pounds each of skirt steak, brisket and bone-in turkey breast and 320 pounds of ground beef that goes into chili and hamburgers.

On the surfaces: Stainless steel work surfaces and epoxy-coated concrete floors keep the kitchen easy to clean.

Why it works: “It's all about timing,” says Cruz. Cooks jockey for time for their dishes in the four ovens, and Cruz considers that when creating menus. “If I could get three more (ovens) I would be a happy man,” he says.

Home cooking: Growing up in Houston, Cruz experienced a variety of flavors in his mom's and grandmother's cooking. “My mother couldn't keep me in the kitchen, but I always had all the smells. They were cooking everything.” He credits the exposure to Asian, Italian and Cajun food for developing his palate.

He still craves his mom's beef stroganoff, and she asks him to make crab cakes for her.

At home, Cruz cooks for his wife and their 14-month-old son. “I love (cooking at home) because it's relaxing to me. I'm not on a time frame,” he says. “I can work 10 hours, and I still go home and make something.”

Know of a good cook with a great kitchen? Email suggestions for Cooks & Cocinas to Home & Garden Editor Tracy Hobson Lehmann, tlehmann@express-news.net.